Matthew

I think 2015-2016 saw a moderate increase in people in the US who have a positive attitude towards socialism, peaking and leveling off somewhere in the 30-40% range. As an ideology by itself it's too complicated for most people in the absence of any plainspoken American political figure advocating that viewpoint.

Clearly you've never talked to a tankie, or likely even an actual socialist.

Lol. The entire reason the bipartisan immigration bill was made is because republicans said they would not vote on Ukraine spending unless democrats agreed to a huge impossible immigration overhaul bill. Basically figuring the thing no one has been able to do for decades would be enough of an obstacle. But then they actually spent months making a the huge impossible bill with all the fixes republicans wanted and most Republicans agreed with it until Trump told them to kill it.

Yeah but i don't care about that. I want to know why trump and republicans didn't pass a big immigration bil in 2017 and 2018 since it was trump's big #1 issue. This is your own logic, so I want to see you apply it to your own guy.

Then why did trump base his entire campaign on immigration problems in 2015-2016? And despite his dishonest rhetoric on the issue, everyone agrees there has been a poor immigration system in dire need of overhaul. Its been an intractable issue for many decades.

Explain why Trump and a Republican House and Senate during 2017 and 2018 didn't fix immigration. In fact what would you even say they did accomplish?

Yup, Vance was able to deliver some well-polished nonsense responses.

Hilarious lack of understanding of the legal concept and history you're attempting to comment upon.

The issue isn't with fence-sitters, it's with non-voters. There is a very large percentage of eligible citizens who do not vote but who can sometimes be persuaded to do so.

Usually in complete linear coherent sentences like a normal person.

I don't agree with Vance on anything, I find him very unlikable, and his pet-eating bs is certainly dishonest. However it is an exaggeration to characterize him as a hateful extremist. There are actual hateful extremists far beyond what Vance can muster.

I thought both Vance and Walz did well. I loved the civil Midwestern dad vibes, being one myself. The two guys were nice to each other but differed on their policy ideas. Clearly Vance was trying to appeal more to the center than he usually does. After 10 years of listening to Trump's indecipherable gibberish and hyperbole, any republican able to form normal sentences suddenly seems like a genius. I already knew Walz was good but Vance improved his standing as a person capable of appearing decent and serious. Meanwhile trump by comparison seems like an absolute turd of a candidate.

Yes I noticed this the first time I saw him go off the rails. Suddenly emoji everywhere!

Yes, I'm a rationalist interested in the truth and I have no tribal loyalty to any political ideology, group, or person. Any journalism organization covertly colluding with a political faction would have no credibility with me. That being said, this so far looks like fabricated misinformation that I will not take seriously unless it can be confirmed.

I would get behind a criticism of ABC if these claims were confirmed or posted by a halfway trusted source. Right now it's just a unverified and anonymous claim from a MAGA guy on Twitter and nothing more.

You're setting the bar kinda high for yourself there.

I think you're actual strategic problem is that the maga movement is so invested in extremist poltitical dialogue that they sometimes openly acknowledge is not literally true but is done for effect. They are ok with trumps over-the-top lies and exaggerations, and whole right-wing ecosystem of misinformation and conspiracy theories because they believe it's all for a noble cause, right? The long term impact is that nothing in the right wing sphere is actually trustworthy beyond pure tribal loyalty. Nothing they say can be believed as true. There is a normal level of political spin like you're complaining about but the far right has constructed elaborate insane fabricated lies like democrats ritually drinking the blood of children and batshit crazy stuff like this.

His point is backwards nonsense. "The Charlottesville lie" is a meaningless statement showing a refusal to accept reality.

Trump is closer to maxing out the number of people who would ever vote for him, statistically drawn overwhelmingly from elderly less educated white guys. Harris has a far bigger pool of eligible voters who are under 50 but statistically less likely to turn out. So the strategy for both is trying to activate new and younger voters. That's why trump is going on so many podcasts followed by millions of younger white men.

The actual conservatives gave up a long time ago and with delusional nonsense like you just listed off I can see why.

If someone claims that David Muir openly supports a candidate on his show then all you have to do is show him doing that even once. Retorting that he obviously does is lazy. The guy is famously private about his personal political opinions.

"Fair and Balanced"

At least you understand trump is too dumb to compete in a fair debate.

Walz is saying people who don't vote are still negatively impacted by the political consequences of those who do show up.

That's negotiable. Both fox and cnn are able to host a fair debate. The cnn offer is what's on the table. Donnys the one who looked like a complete know-nothing airhead in the last one. But if I were him I wouldn't do it. Everyone knows he's not capable of doing better.